Due to the cost-of-living crisis, we predicted an increase in demand for help with water bills and were conscious of the impact this may have on advice agencies, so we injected an additional £160,000 into the debt advice sector across our region to help ease capacity.
Funding included requirements to support those needing help with their water bills and completing applications for our support schemes. We funded seven projects - a mix of funding debt advisor training courses, funding more advisor roles and hours, putting debt advisor presence in warm spaces, and financing a cost of living advisor.
One project we chose to fund was Citizen Advice East Dorset and Purbeck’s (EDP) Advice Bus. This provided funding for a full-time member of staff to coordinate and manage the Advice Bus Team. The bus will provide a drop-in advice service and advertise the opportunity to come and access digital assistance locally. It will enable Citizen Advice EDP to reach rural parts of the community and offer a holistic advice service which includes helping customers afford their water bills. The bus has been able to help customers with a variety of issues such as:
- Appointments for digital form filling or to create a budget, our advisers would be able to offer additional support to increase financial resilience.
- Further appointments for income maximisation, helping clients to claim DWP benefits as appropriate or supporting them to challenge benefit decisions to increase income.
- Refer clients to our specialist caseworkers eg., Wessex Water Assist, Debt, Homelessness Prevention, or Employment, to further support financial stability.
- Direct access to the Dorset Energy Unit - a team of NVQ-trained energy caseworkers, who will be able to assist them with uploading documents and bills and access charitable grants online.
Within the first month of being in action, the advisors saw more than 100 clients and around 54 of those had more complex issues.
Feedback has been excellent, and the advisers have been at full capacity.
